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The Turkmen cockroach
Level 1 Intermediate
1
Warmer
cockroach /ˈkɒkrə Ʊ tʃ/ noun [countable]
An insect similar to a large beetle that lives in places where food is kept.
What you would do if you saw a cockroach:
in the street?
in your home?
in a restaurant?
E.g. If I saw a cockroach in a restaurant, I would ...
2
Key words
Skim read the article and ind a word that means:
1.
To get rid of an employee – two words. (sub-title and para 4)
2.
A short news programme or oficial statement. (para 1)
3.
A TV or radio programme. (para 1)
4.
Shocked. (para 3)
5.
The results of affects of something. (para 3)
6.
Not seen, or unnoticed. (para 5)
7.
Changes, especially to make a system work fairly. (para 8)
8.
To give something back to someone. (para 9)
9.
To have good qualities. (para 10)
10.
Someone has completed their studies at a university. (para 12)
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Intermediate
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The Turkmen cockroach
Level 1 Intermediate
And inally... how a cockroach put 30
people out of work
several TV executives after drunken technicians
failed to screen his New Year’s speech to the
nation. They eventually managed to broadcast
the bulletin at 3am.
Luke Harding in Moscow
February 22, 2008
Turkmen president sacks staff after an insect
walks onto a TV news bulletin
7
Those sacked in the cockroach incident included
journalists, directors, camera operators, and
technical staff. Nobody from the Turkmen
embassy in Moscow was available for comment.
1
For the viewers of Turkmenistan’s popular nightly
news programme, Vatan , it was another routine
bulletin. But as the newsreader began the 9pm
broadcast, viewers across the central Asian
country spotted something unusual crawling
across the studio table: a large brown cockroach.
8
Berdymukhamedov is trying to improve relations
with the west, and has begun a series of mild
liberal reforms at home. He has announced
the opening of Internet cafes in Ashgabat,
Turkmenistan’s capital, and reintroduced foreign
languages to the school curriculum.
2
The cockroach managed to run the whole
way across the desk before disappearing. The
programme, complete with cockroach, was
repeated at 11pm that night.
9
Last March the president restored pensions
to more than 100,000 elderly citizens and
in January he reversed another of his
predecessor’s more bizarre bans – on opera and
ballet performances.
3
It was only at 9am the following day that horriied
oficials from Turkmenistan’s ministry of culture
discovered the cockroach’s guest appearance.
And that, perhaps, should have been the end
of the matter. But the consequences of this
cockroach’s ive minutes of fame were immediate
and severe.
10
“Our lourishing nation should not stand separate
from the world,” Berdymukhamedov said. He
added: “It absolutely should have a worthy
operatic theatre and a worthy state theatre.”
The country’s president, Kurbanguly
Berdymukhamedov, took news of the insect so
badly that he reacted by sacking 30 workers from
the main state TV channel, the news website
Kronika Turkmenistan reported yesterday.
11
Berdymukhamedov wants to end Turkmenistan’s
isolation from the rest of the world in other ways
too. He has overseen ideas to attract larger
numbers of foreign tourists to Turkmenistan,
including the building of a multibillion pound
tourist resort on the Caspian Sea. The president
has also visited Washington.
4
5
Before the cockroach incident,
Berdymukhamedov had instructed
Turkmenistan’s minister of culture, Gulmurat
Muradov, to modernize the country’s TV channel.
However, a new ministerial committee set up to
carry out this task only worked 9am to 6pm. This
allowed the cockroach to run around undetected.
12
Berdymukhamedov’s dislike of cockroaches may
have something to do with his previous career
as a dentist. He graduated from Turkmenistan’s
state medical institute in 1979, completing a PhD
in medical sciences in Moscow, and then worked
as a dentist from 1980 to 1995. In December
1997 he was appointed minister for health.
6
Berdymukhamedov became leader of the oil-rich
former Soviet republic in December 2006. The
previous president, Saparmurat Niyazov, sacked
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Intermediate
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The Turkmen cockroach
Level 1 Intermediate
Cockroach notes
4,500 cockroach species have been classiied,
but there are thought to be at least twice as many
species yet to be discovered around the world.
Despite the belief cockroaches would be the only
survivors of nuclear war, being 15 times more
resistant to radiation than humans, other insects
such as fruit lies can survive even higher doses.
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A cockroach can live without a head for
several weeks before starving to death; the
head by itself can survive several hours.
The world’s largest species is the wingless
Australian rhinoceros (Macropanesthia
rhinoceros), weighing up to 33.5 gms and up
to 90 mm in length.
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© Guardian News & Media 2008
First published in The Guardian , 22/02/08
3
Comprehension check
According to the article are these statements True (T) or False (F)?
1.
Turkmenistan’s wealth currently comes from oil. T/F
2.
Before he became president, Berdymukhamedov was a dentist. T/F
3.
Berdymukhamedov has banned performances of operas and ballets. T/F
4.
The capital of Turkmenistan is Vatan. T/F
5.
Berdymukhamedov wants to bring about an end to Turkmenistan’s isolation from the rest of the world. T/F
6.
Turkmenistan has no coast. T/F
7.
Berdymukhamedov wants school children to learn foreign languages. T/F
8.
Turkmenistan used to be a part of the former Soviet Union. T/F
4
Vocabulary: Countries and nationalities
Fill in the missing information in the box. E.g. The country is Australia , the people are Australian .
country
nationality
Turkmenistan
Ukrainian
Russia
Uzbekistani
Iran
Afghani
Kazakhstan
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Intermediate
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The Turkmen cockroach
Level 1 Intermediate
5
Discussion
Berdymukhamedov’s reaction to the cockroach incident was to sack 30 people.
Do you think this was the right thing to do? Give reasons why or why not.
6
Webquest: Cockroach quiz
Do cockroaches bite? How big is a cockroach baby? What do cockroaches eat?
Go to http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/cockroach_faq.html to ind the answers to these and
many other questions.
Create a class quiz. Each student should write at least one question (plus answer).
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Intermediate
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The Turkmen cockroach
Level 1 Intermediate
KEY
2 Key words
1. sack
2. bulletin
3. broadcast
4. horriied
5. consequences
6. undetected
7. reforms
8. restored
9. worthy
10. graduated
4 Vocabulary: Countries and nationalities
country
nationality
Turkmenistan
Turkmen
Ukraine
Ukrainian
Russia
Russian
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistani
Iran
Iranian
Afghanistan
Afghani
Kazakhstan
Kazakh
3 Comprehension check
1. True
2. True
3. False
4. False
5. True
6. False
7. True
8. True
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Intermediate
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